


Safe

by KeiChanz



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, kagomom is best mom, moroha is just best, papayasha is best papa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29077617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeiChanz/pseuds/KeiChanz
Summary: Inuyasha is late coming home from a youkai slaying trip. Moroha worries and Kagome does her best to reassure her.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha
Comments: 11
Kudos: 129





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MamaBearCat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaBearCat/gifts).



> i realize that moroha doesn't have a human night/period of weakness or whatever. for the sake of this oneshot, let's pretend she does. 
> 
> written for my dear friend [Mamabearcat!!](https://mamabearcat.tumblr.com) i know it's a rough day for you and i hope this brings a smile to your face. ❤️love you!

“Mama?”

“Hm?”

Pausing in the task of cutting up the behemoth fish gifted to her courtesy of the village headman for the successful delivery of his second grandchild she’d overseen just that afternoon, Kagome cast a brief glance at the four-year-old sitting by the fire before continuing to prepare that night’s dinner. And several other dinners thereafter. 

“What is it, baby?” she asked, a little distracted as she pushed aside one section of freshly chopped up meat and started on the next as a small frown furrowed her brow. The thing really was huge. Where the hell had Kinso gotten it? Had to be some kind of mutant from freakin’ outer space or something...

“Where’s Papa?”

Kagome’s thoughts were immediately derailed from mutant alien fish at her daughter’s question and for the second time her hands stilled what they were doing. The softness of her tone coupled with a hint of something Kagome couldn’t quite place prompted her to lay down the knife and give the child her full attention, grabbing a damp rag to wipe her hands with as she turned around with a gentle smile.

Sitting on the floor with her knees to her chest, surrounded by toys both gifted by Shippou and handmade by her father, Moroha’s gaze was fixed on the fire as she idly poked at it with a stick. When she noticed her mother’s gaze on her, however, she lifted her head and turned her attention to the older woman, wide eyes meeting identical brown. 

Kagome resisted the urge to frown as she answered, “Papa’s away with Uncle Miroku getting rid of some bad youkai that are causing problems in another village, sweetheart. They left early this morning.” Her smile widened and she tilted her head. “Did you forget because you were still half-asleep when he said goodbye?”

Moroha wrinkled her nose and stared back into the fire. “I remember,” she murmured with a slight pout. “I just...thought he’d be back by now.”

Realization dawned. Ahh, so that’s where this was coming from. Kagome’s expression softened in understanding and she moved forward to kneel down and tenderly sweep her daughter’s hair away from her eyes. Moroha looked up at her again, dark eyes wide and pleading for something Kagome was unable to provide.

“Well,” Kagome started softly, gathering her words carefully. “Sometimes these trips can take a long time, or even longer than what was originally planned. Remember that time we went to visit Kouga and his sons, but we arrived a day late because of that unexpected snow storm?”

Moroha blinked and then nodded.

“It’s the same thing,” she continued. “Maybe something unexpected happened that’s making Papa be a little later than normal. You never know.” 

The four-year-old digested that in silence and then gave a single nod of acceptance a minute later. She still looked troubled, though, and Kagome smiled a little sadly as she ran a hand through her daughter’s hair.

“Are you missing Papa?” she asked, her voice soft. 

Biting her lip, Moroha hesitated before giving another short nod. It was obvious she was trying not to cry and Kagome’s smile widened just a little. Her tiny tough girl, wanting to be just like her papa. 

“I miss him, too,” Kagome revealed and tucked a strand of ebony hair behind her daughter’s small ear. “I miss him every time he has to leave, but you know what?” She waited until Moroha blinked up at her in silent inquiry before assuring, “I bet he’s on his way home _ right _ now. He knows what tonight is, baby, and we both know that he’ll do anything in his power to make it in time. He hasn’t missed a single one yet; I doubt today will be the time he does.”

She smoothed back Moroha’s bangs and smiled again, hopping to assuage her lingering doubts, but when there was no change in Moroha’s expression, Kagome was starting to wonder if this went a little deeper than she’d originally thought. Her smile dimmed and her brow furrowed with concern as her eyes roved her cherubic face.

“Moroha? What’s wrong, sweetie?” Kagome settled down beside her and dropped her hand to rub up and down her back. 

Moroha squirmed a bit, worried her bottom lip, and when she lifted her head once again to meet her gaze, Kagome abruptly sucked in a sharp breath at the look on her daughter’s face. There was genuine worry etched clearly on those dear features, her little brow furrowed as she continued to bite down on her lip. But what truly broke her heart was the honest to god fear that swam in those beloved eyes, so like her own, and Kagome’s chest constricted.

If she hadn’t already accurately guessed the true reason for her upset, Moroha’s next words solidified her suspicions.

“If Papa’s not here,” her little girl began and the audible tremble in her voice had a very real ache developing in Kagome’s chest. “T-then who’s gonna protect me? It’s not safe without Papa here...right?”

With every word that Moroha said, the knife dug a little deeper into her heart and Kagome felt the burn of tears prickling the back of her eyes. Her throat suddenly felt tight and she swallowed several times to dislodge the lump that had formed there, but to no avail. God, their little girl really thought she wasn’t safe without her father here to defend them, and while Kagome should have felt a little offended and insulted that she apparently couldn't rely on her mother to protect her, she also understood where she was coming from. Out of the two of them, Inuyasha was obviously the strongest and Moroha had witnessed him on numerous occasions effortlessly dispatching some rogue youkai that had the balls big enough to enter the village, or when they were traveling and they were unexpectedly attacked. Kagome herself contributed with arrows if necessary, but tasked with keeping their daughter safe from harm, she hardly assisted most of the time and let her more than capable husband deal with the threat himself. 

So it stood to reason at her young age Moroha would believe if her strong papa wasn’t around to protect her, she wasn’t safe. So no, Kagome didn't fault her one bit. If anything she blamed  _ herself _ for allowing her to think she wasn’t safe with her own mother, but she sought to rectify that right now. 

“Oh, Moroha,” Kagome murmured and swallowed again as she reached for her daughter and pulled her into her lap. “Oh, baby, no. No, don’t ever think that you’re not safe, okay? Mama will protect you, no matter what.”

Small hands fisted in her robes as Moroha curled herself up against her with a quiet sniffle. Kagome held her close, crossing her legs and settling her daughter into the cradle of them as she gently rocked her, pressing her face into her hair and kissing her head.

“Sweetheart,” Kagome began and pulled back enough to gently cup Moroha’s face in her hands, urging her gaze to meet her own. Her heart nearly broke at the tear tracks on her cheeks and tenderly Kagome wiped them away with her thumbs as she offered a trembling but reassuring smile. 

“Moroha, just because your father’s not here doesn’t mean that you’re not safe, okay? I’m here, and I promise I will _ always _ protect you. I’ll never let anything happen to you, ever. And you have Aunt Sango, Uncle Miroku, Kohaku, and even Grandma Kaede. They all love you just as much as your father and I and I know they would protect you too, if something were to happen when your father isn’t here. So don’t ever doubt that you’re not safe, okay, my love? I’ll protect you. I promise.”

She sealed her promise with a kiss to her daughter’s forehead, as much an act of comfort as it was to hide her cracking facade. Kagome closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to stave off the tears she could feel building behind her eyes, her arms tightening around her precious little girl. 

“Promise?” Moroha whispered a minute later and Kagome’s heart constricted again. 

“I promise,” Kagome repeated and rained kisses upon her daughter’s face until soft, watery giggles reached her ears. Smiling in relief, Kagome leaned back and smoothed a wayward strand of raven hair away from Moroha’s face. 

“Do you understand?” Kagome gently pressed, needing to hear her say it. “You’re always safe here, Moroha. No matter what. Okay?”

Sniffling once, Moroha looked up at her with great brown eyes, nodded, and Kagome was gratified to see that the fear and worry had left her face. She heaved a mental sigh of relief and couldn't stop herself from pressing one last kiss to her forehead.

“Okay, Mama,” the quarter-youkai said. “I understand.” She paused. “Does that mean Papa will be back soon?”

Kagome could have laughed. “I’m sure Papa will be back before you know it,” she assured and tapped her daughter’s nose. She was rewarded with another giggle. “Now there’s still a couple hours until dinner time, so why don’t you go outside and find the twins to play? They were here looking for you earlier when you were taking a nap.”

Finally _ , finally  _ her little girl gifted her with a brilliant smile and several enthusiastic nods of her head. “Okay!” 

Hopping to her feet, Moroha placed a wet kiss on her mother’s cheek before bounding out of their home, shouting for Kin’u and Gyokuto at the top of her lungs. 

Blowing out a breath, Kagome slumped back onto her hands and let her head fall back onto her shoulders as she closed her eyes now that _ that _ crisis was averted. 

“Alright, dogboy,” Kagome muttered a minute later as she climbed to her feet. “You’d better be on your way here right this second or so help me god…”

Sighing, Kagome wrinkled her nose, shook her head, and got back to cutting up the gargantuan fish for that night’s dinner, however this time her thoughts centered around her hanyou husband and their daughter rather than alien fish from outer space.

Hours later, just before sunset, Kagome was outside hanging up laundry on the clothes line she’d had Inuyasha construct for her and there was still no sign of said hanyou anywhere. Of course it wasn’t particularly unusual for him to be so late, but she was more worried about Moroha when she’d come inside for dinner and discover that her father still had not returned. 

With a frown and unable to shake off the anxious feeling that had taken root in her gut, Kagome pinned one of Moroha’s tiny kosodes to the line and worried her bottom lip as she straightened out the fabric. She knew her husband, knew he’d made a silent vow to himself to always be here during this particular night because he never wanted his daughter to feel as he had in his own youth. She was positive he’d do everything in his power to make it in time, just as she’d claimed to Moroha hours earlier, so she refused to entertain the thought that he was lying in a ditch somewhere, bleeding and unconscious and helpless--

“When I get my hands on you dogboy…” Kagome muttered darkly to herself as she just a little viciously tossed one said dogboy’s kosodes onto the line.

“Sounds promising,” a familiar voice rumbled in her ear as strong arms circled her waist from behind and Kagome gasped. 

Dropping the pair of hakama in her hand, Kagome spun around and was greeted with the sight of warm amber eyes and a fanged grin. Momentarily forgetting her ire toward her husband, Kagome beamed and threw her arms around his neck to pull him into a long welcome-home kiss that he eagerly reciprocated. 

“Mmm,” Inuyasha hummed against her lips and stole another kiss. “Miss me, wench?”

“Hmm…” Nuzzling his nose with hers, Kagome smiled and dug her fingers into his hair to cup the back of his neck. “Maybe. You had me worried for a minute there, dogboy. You’re late.”

“Mm.” Inuyasha grunted and buried his face in his wife’s neck, inhaling her scent and holding her for a minute, relishing the feel of her in his arms. Granted, it had only been just that morning when he left his family, but he hated being apart from them for any stretch of time. 

Happy to have her beloved hanyou home, safe and in one piece, Kagome sighed and simply held her husband, letting him breath her in, relax, and wind down after what she assumed was a successful slaying mission and the long journey home. She smiled; she knew he’d make it.

Even if he  _ was _ cutting it a little close this time and giving her premature gray hairs.

“What happened?” she questioned after another minute or so, knowing he had to have some explanation as to why he got back so late.

Heaving a sigh, Inuyasha reluctantly pulled away but kept his arms wrapped loosely around her waist. “It was definitely unexpected. The ‘youkai’ that was terrorizing the village actually turned out to be a forest deity trapped in a curse and after finding this out, me and the monk had to travel all over hell just to find out what happened. Long story short, we talked to about twenty different people to find out how to break it, used a boat to get to some small ass island in the middle of nowhere, uncovered a buried artifact, and smashed it to bits.”

Kagome stared up at him with wide eyes, not expecting such a turn of events. “Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“Was the deity freed?”

He shrugged. “Assume so. When we got back to the village to collect the payment - the monk’s insistence, not mine - it was nowhere to be seen, and a few miles away there was a large area with blown back trees and scorched earth.”

Shaking her head, Kagome nonetheless accepted the explanation and tipped him a smile, lifting a hand to seize a furry ear and rub the soft flesh. She was immediately rewarded with a low rumble of approval and her smile widened.

“Well, I’m just glad you’re home,” she said and Inuyasha gave her one of his rare smiles, the one he reserved only for her and his daughter. And speaking of…

“She missed you,” Kagome murmured. Then she paused, and Inuyasha must have seen something in her expression because he frowned slightly.

“What happened?” he prodded and Kagome sighed before giving him a condensed version of what had happened earlier.

Predictably Inuyasha did not react well to the news, his ears flattening into his hair and the guilt was writ clear as day on his face. He grimaced and Kagome smiled a little wryly as she switched to his other ear, seeking to comfort him. 

“Stop,” she said before his thoughts could get away from him and was expecting the scowl that crossed his features. She shook her head. “You’re here now. You didn’t break your promise and that’s what matters.”

As she continued to massage his ear, Inuyasha’s scowl gradually lessened until he was glaring a tad mulishly at his wife and her cheeky grin told him she knew exactly what she was doing.

“I hate it when you do that,” he grumbled and then sighed, his expression relaxing. 

“No you don’t,” Kagome chirped and Inuyasha snorted. Laughing softly, she released his ear and reluctantly stepped out of his embrace. 

“She outback?” he asked as he let his arms drop to his sides, his nose confirming what he'd just asked seconds before his wife answered him.

“Last I checked on her,” Kagome replied and stooped to pick up the hakama she’d dropped. 

Inuyasha grunted his acknowledgment then caught her chin to pull her into one last lingering kiss. And another. And another. Until finally Kagome giggled and had to push him away and he brushed by her with a low chuckle. 

Walking around their home toward what could be considered a backyard of sorts, Inuyasha found his daughter as he knew he would, kneeling barefoot in the dirt and constructing...something out of rocks, sticks, and what looked like several of Sango’s missing dishware. 

He withheld a snort of amusement and crossed his arms as he leaned against their hut, a smile lifting the corners of his lips despite himself. His child was a little thief and he wasn’t sure if he should be proud of her apparent stealth or disappointed at her...well, thievery. 

Oblivious to her father’s presence behind her - unsurprising given the time of day - Moroha continued to build whatever it was she was making, humming quietly to herself as she stacked the clay bowls, now covered in dirt, on top of the rocks and filled them with pebbles. She muttered something about bugs having somewhere to sleep and now Inuyasha wondered if he should be _ worried _ instead of proud or disappointed. 

He was content to watch her for another few minutes as the sun sank lower into the sky until finally he decided to make his presence known.

“Whatcha buildin’ there, kiddo?”

Gasping, Moroha shot to her feet and spun around so fast she knocked down her rock, bowl, and stock formation but she hardly noticed. Spotting the figure clad in red cleaning casually against the wall of their home, grinning at her with warm honey eyes, the quarter-youkai released a squeal of pure delight and darted towards him with a mile-wide smile spreading across her face.

“Papa!” she shrieked and Inuyasha knelt down just in time to catch her in his arms as she barreled into them.

Holding her tight against him, Inuyasha stood with her in his arms and buried his nose in her hair, breathing in his little girl’s scent and letting it wash away the last of the tension that seized his muscles. Kagome’s soothing scent was only half of what he needed; his Moroha completed him in ways he hadn't even known he needed until she was born.

“I missed you,” Moroha murmured into his shoulder, her small arms locked tight around his neck and Inuyasha closed his eyes as he tightened his arms around her. 

“Missed you too, babygirl,” he rumbled and kissed her temple. “Sorry I’m late. Forgive me?”

She nodded against his shoulder, refusing to relinquish her hold or pull away even an inch. 

“I’ll always be here to protect you, Moroha,” Inuyasha vowed, his voice a low, earnest rumble. “No matter what, I’ll keep you and your mom safe. Now I need you to do something for me, okay?”

Moroha shifted against him and turned her head so she could peer up at his face with wide eyes, dark and beautiful just like her mother’s. She nodded once, always happy to do something for her papa whenever he asked.

Inuyasha nodded in approval. “If there ever comes a time that I’m not here and the village is in danger, I need you to trust your mom to keep you safe. She’ll do anything to protect you, just like I will, so you never have to worry about not being safe. Okay? Can you do that for me?”

His daughter blinked up at him, her eyes wide and slightly awed, but then her little face grew solemn and she nodded again, lifting a wee hand to gently pat his cheek.

“Okay, Papa,” Moroha agreed and he caught her small hand in his own. “I can do that. I know Mama will protect me, just like you do, and Aunt Sango, and Uncle Miroku, and Kohaku, and Gramma Kaede.”

Inuyasha smiled down at his little girl and pressed a kiss to her hand. “That’s my girl,” he murmured and Moroha gifted him with a brilliant smile, happy that she made her papa happy. 

“Alright,” he said, sniffing the air once, twice. “I think your mama’s got dinner ready, so how about we go inside and get some grub? Dunno about you, but I’m starving.” 

He tried to eat her hand to prove just how starving he was and Moroha’s gleeful laughter echoed into the night as the sun finally sank below the horizon.

Kagome looked up as her husband walked into their home with their fully human child in his arms and she smiled at them both before walking over to smother her daughter in kisses just to hear her laugh. Inuyasha took the opportunity to steal another kiss of his own from his wife before all three of them settled down by the fire to eat the seasoned fish and rice and the parents were content to listen to their daughter fabricate a story about the humongous fish the headman had given them.

Later, dinner put away, the fire crackling softly below a gently bubbling kettle for tea, Inuyasha sat against the wall with his daughter fast asleep in his arms and wrapped securely in his suikan. The only noticeable difference of the loss of her youkai blood was the lack of claws and fangs, but otherwise she looked completely the same. 

Clawed fingers tenderly brushed away tendrils of onyx hair as golden eyes stared down at the slumbering child, wondering, soft, the love he felt for her so obvious it nearly put Kagome in tears. She didn’t bother offering to put her to bed; if he’d wanted, Inuyasha could have done that himself so she knew he was content to sit there holding their sleeping daughter and honestly, she couldn't blame him. Kagome loved holding her, too, but watching her husband as he caressed their daughter’s face, brushing back her hair, staring so lovingly at her as she slept on...it was truly an experience and she had to wonder if Inuyasha felt similarly when watching her hold their daughter. 

Abandoning the cup of tea she was in the middle of making, Kagome crawled over to them and cozied up against her husband’s side. Inuyasha shifted and tugged her closer with an arm around her shoulders, dropping a kiss to her head as Kagome let it rest on his shoulder with a content sigh. 

Together they watched the steady rise and fall of Moroha’s chest, listened to her even breathing, reveled in the powerful, overwhelming love they had for her and for each other as they sat in their home, warm, happy, and most importantly, safe. 


End file.
